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If you fall in love with a vampire,
you will always feel a keen flicker of fear
when his lips linger
over the pulse point at the crook of your neck.

When dating a werewolf,
it is considered polite to leave a dish of water out
on the night of the full moon.
(A few pieces of raw beef chuck will never go amiss,
either.)

Avoid fallen angels at all costs.
They are sanctimonious.

If you find out that the cute andro-queer barista at your
local coffee shop is a witch,
understand that she has dated at least half of the women in
her coven by this point,
and every one of them will have some nasty piece of gossip
about her.

Running barefoot through the woods with a dryad
is exhilarating at first,
but over time it becomes exhausting.

The Victorian Gentlemen who crashes on your doorstep
in his H.G. Wells time machine
is guaranteed to be charming and debonair
with an impeccable fashion sense and polished manners.
Unfortunately he will also have some very regressive ideas
about gender roles.

If you have a bad breakup with a shape shifter
there is every chance that you will see them again.
But they will always be unrecognizable to you.

You will always feel the sweet, subtle ache of loss
if you choose to love a ghost.



Caroline Cantrell lives in New York.
Current Issue
20 Jan 2025

Strange Horizons
Surveillance technology looms large in our lives, sold to us as tools for safety, justice, and convenience. Yet the reality is far more sinister.
Vans and campers, sizeable mobile cabins and some that were barely more than tents. Each one a home, a storefront, and a statement of identity, from the colorful translucent windows and domes that harvested sunlight to the stickers and graffiti that attested to places travelled.
“Don’t ask me how, but I found out this big account on queer Threads is some kind of super Watcher.” Charlii spins her laptop around so the others can see. “They call them Keepers, and they watch the people that the state’s apparatus has tagged as terrorists. Not just the ones the FBI created. The big fish. And people like us, I guess.”
It's 9 a.m., she still hasn't eaten her portion of tofu eggs with seaweed, and Amaia wants the day to be over.
Nadjea always knew her last night in the Clave would get wild: they’re the only sector of the city where drink and drug and dance are unrestricted, and since one of the main Clavist tenets is the pursuit of corporeal joy in all its forms, they’ve more or less refined partying to an art.
surviving / while black / is our superpower / we lift broken down / cars / over our heads / and that’s just a tuesday
After a few deft movements, she tossed the cube back to James, perfectly solved. “We’re going to break into the Seattle Police Department’s database. And you’re going to help me do it.”
there are things that are toxic to a bo(d)y
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